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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




IN THE HAKBOR. 



Jf arrows. 



Through the Narrows 



REV. W. W. EVERTS, D.D. 



" Life is a bark borne by the gentle gale. 
Freighted with hopes, to some far distant clime." 



/$^-^^'''^^''^, 






New York 
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS 

530 Broadway 

1884 






THfi Library 
OF CoNosass 

WASHtSOTON 



Bv Robert Carter & Brothers. 



THIS PARABLE OF LIFE 

IS DEDICATED 

TO PARENTS, TEACHERS, AND GUARDIANS; 

AND TO 

THE THOUGHTFUL CHILDREN 

THEY ARE SO ANXIOUSLY AND HOPEFULLY 

SEEKING TO GUIDE ON 

THE VOYAGE OF LIFE, 

BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



PROEM. 



Forty years ago, on a Sunday School 
picnic to Fort Hamilton, New York Bay, 
where the channel formed by the confluence 
of the East and North Rivers finds its outlet 
to the ocean, as the steamer bearing the 
excursion was rounding into the stream to 
return to the city, the pastor was called 
upon for a speech. As he stepped upon 
the bench encircled by the guard of the 
boat and looked upon the children crowd- 
ing the deck before him, the channel filled 
with vessels around him, the spires of the 
city dimly seen in one direction and the 
expanding ocean in another, and the setting 
sun gilding land and sea, the scene was 
picturesque and inspiring. This parable of 
life then flashed upon his mind, and ''Through 

(5) 



6 PROEM. 

the Narrows " is now offered to the public. 
To blend the instruction of biography with 
the pictorial interest of parable, we have 
cited examples o£ eminent men in illustrat- 
ing and enforcing the principles and prom- 
ise of early training. 

W. W. EVERTS. 

^^nuary^ 1884 



CONTENTS. 



I. A Child but once ii 

IL The Common Lot of Childhood .... 14 

III. Diverging Courses 18 

IV. Signs of Divergence 24 

V. Industry , . , , 26 

VI. Frugality 31 

VII. Economy 35 

VIII. Honesty 38 

IX. Gaming 43 

X. Tobacco 46 

XI. The Cup 48 

XII. Intelligence. 53 

XIII. Genius 57 

XIV. Heroic Spirit 60 

XV. Energy 63 

XVI. Cheerfulness 67 

XVII. Politeness 70 

XVIII. Firmness 72 

XIX. Responsibility 76 

XX. Charitable Temper . 81 

XXI. Truthfulness 84 

XXII. Filial Obedience 86 

XXIII. Prayer 88 

XXIV. Faith . 92 



VIU 



CONTENTS. 



PROVISIONS OF VOYAGE. 

XXV. Vessel 99 

XXVI. Stores loi 

XXVII. Sails 104 

XXVIII. Chart 108 

XXIX. Compass 113 

XXX. Helm 116 

XXXI. Anchor 120 

XXXII. Perils of Voyage 123 

XXXIII. Log-Book. . 127 

XXXIV. BoutingShip 130 

XXXV. End of Voyage 133 

XXXVI. Haven 138 



"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is 
old he will not depart from it." 

The waters washing either shore of Manhattan 
unite at its southern extremity, and sweep away in 
a broad and majestic stream, to the ocean. Group- 
ing the most picturesque scenery with the most re- 
splendent monuments of civilization; furnishing an 
outlet to the noblest bay; and opening a highway 
for the world's commerce, — this is one of the most 
interesting channels of the sea. Compared with 
the breadth of the ocean, stretching away so m,any 
thousand miles from its expanding outlet, it has 
been called the Narrows, In its relation to the 
harbor and the sea it suggests our parable — the 
Voyage of Life. 



A CHILD BUT ONCE. 



* Swiftly thus our fleeting days 
Bear us down Life's rapid stream*^ 



A VESSEL freighted for a foreign port 
passing down this channel does not re- 
pass it next day. It seeks remote seas 
and has begun a long voyage. So child- 
hood furnished with ancestral traditions 
and hopes glides down the Narrows 
bound on the Voyage of Immortality. 
Early years are not taken up in repe- 
titions of experience, but stretch on 
to new experiments, measure succes- 
sive stages of progress, and connect 
themselves with the remote destinies 
of unending being. Childhood is a 
fresh morning flower sultry Noon has 

(11) 



12 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

not withered, evening frosts have not 
nipped, and violence has not crushed. 
It is a rivulet rising amid picturesque 
mountains, meandering through the val- 
leys and staying not in its course till 
swelled by tributaries, it disappears in 
the ocean ! It is a traveler, not tar- 
rying at inns: but holding on his w^ay, 
till leagues, the breadth of a continent, 
or the diameter of the globe, separates 
him from the point of his departure ! 
It is a bark of faultless model, anchor 
weighed, helm set, and white sails in- 
viting breezes to waft it across the 
seas. It is gliding down the ''Nar- 
rows,'' seeking a remote and uncertain 
haven! This ceaseless progression is less 
observed because a generation move to- 
gether, like drops blended in a mighty 
river. But the elastic step of childhood 
once lost is never regained. The col- 



A CHILD BUT ONCE, 13 

or faded from the cheek of youth is 
never restored. The hopefulness of 
manhood long repressed is never re- 
kindled. The eye dimmed by shadows 
of age is never reillumined. The in- 
scription of years on the wrinkled brow 
is never effaced. Yesterday we gazed 
on the sunny countenance of a child, 
dandled him on our knee, and placed 
our hand on his head with benedic- 
tions. To-day he is a schoolboy seek- 
ing rewards of merit or contending in 
athletic games. To-morrow he will be 
a stalwart man pursuing agriculture, 
manufactures, commerce, a profession, 
or politics. Next day with bent form, 
dull eye, and piping voice, he is pitied 
as a relic of the past, or borne silently 
and tearfully to his burial. 



11. 

THE COMMON LOT OF CHILDHOOD, 



" Survey the globe, each ruder realm explore: 
From Reason's faintest ray to Neivton soar — 

What slow gradations in the scale of mind f 
Yet mark in each these mystic wonders wrought ^ 
Oh, Tnark the sleepless energies of thought ! " 



All vessels going to sea from this 
harbor pass the Narrows. The fish- 
ing smack, small coaster, pleasure yacht, 
merchant ship, and the line or war 
steamer move in endless series, — side 
by side, — ^keep the same channel, glide 
on the same tide, catch the same breeze. 
Voyagers can see sailors pulling ropes, 
or going aloft, on a neighboring ship, 
and interchange salutations: so all em- 
barking on the voyage of life pass the 
Narrows of Childhood, restricted by its 

(14) 



THE COMMON LOT OF CHILDHOOD, 15 

ignorance, dependence, and helplessness. 
Newton s mind once inhabited an in- 
fant's frame. Shakespeare once looked 
out with the vacant stare of Infancy. 
Milton was once hushed to sleep by 
a mother's lullaby. 

Prospective strength and weakness, 
wealth and poverty, learning and ignor- 
ance, virtue and vice, religion and im- 
piety appear together undistinguished 
in the nursery, playground or school. 
The child who will be president of this 
Republic in 1900 is unrevealed to the 
most inquisitive prophets of destiny. 
Future Governors, Senators, Scientists, 
Philosophers, Poets, Philanthropists, Mil- 
lionaires, are distinguished by no mystic 
aureole surrounding their brow. The 
future Arnolds, Burrs, Guiteaus, exhibit 
the same smiling countenance, buoyant 
spirits, and playful energy that charac- 



16 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

terize other children. This common ca- 
pacity and condition of childhood are 
the hope of philanthropy and Christi- 
anity. If the gnarled tree cannot be 
reshaped by bending its trunk or in- 
clining its branches and twigs, 

**A dewdrop on the baby plant 
Has warped the Giant Oak forever." 

If the majestic stream cannot be 
turned from its course and made to 
seek an outlet in another sea, 

** A pebble in a streamlet cast 
Has turned the course of many a river." 

Let parents praying for the welfare 
of their children; Statesmen seeking 
the glory of the Republic; and Philan- 
thropists striving for the amelioration 
of Society be cheered by the common 
susceptibility and promise of Childhood ! 



THE COMMON LOT OF CHILDHOOD, 17 

Point out to the traveler his way in the 
morning, ere weariness come over his 
limbs, and discouragement over his 
heart, lest the day be lost in circuitous 
wandering. Go to the voyager before 
he has lost his bearings on the high 
seas: while he is weighing anchor, set- 
ting sail, present him compass and 
chart, and teach him how to hold the 
tiller. 



III. 

DIVERGING COURSES. 



" Even a child is known by his doings^ 
Whether his work be pure and whether it be right.** 



Vessels passing the '' Narrows" traverse 
different seas, and reach widely separated 
ports. Some double Cape Horn, others 
Good Hope. Some cast anchor in Arc- 
tic, and others in Antarctic seas. Some 
make port on the shores of the Atlantic 
or Indian Ocean, others on the coasts 
of the Pacific. Passing down the same 
narrow channel abreast, exchanging sig- 
nals, they separated at its outlet, and 
find Ports divided by the diameter of 
the globe. Such is the divergence of 
the destinies of Childhood born and 
reared in the same community* Those 

fl8) 



DIVERGING COURSES. 19 

who have played, attended school and 
church, together, remove to different 
parts of the country or seek their for- 
tunes in remote lands. From the same 
youthful circle one rises to the pinnacle 
of Fame, another plunges into infamy; 
one boasts the distinction of learning, 
another is content with the obscurity 
of ignorance; one grasps power, another 
prefers the privacy of a citizen; one re- 
vels in wealth, another is straitened 
in poverty; one looks down from a 
Tower, another looks up through a 
Grate; one adorns society by his virtues, 
another blackens it by his vices. While 
Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, 
Webster and Clay rose to fame, their 
juvenile peers sank in obscurity. Those 
now holding positions of trust and honor 
have seen their early companions sink 
in discouragement. 



20 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

At the commencement of this century 
in one of the middle counties of the Em- 
pire State were two lads. One wasted 
his superior advantages in idleness, and 
dissipation. A few years ago he might 
have been seen almost any day issuing 
from the saloon of his native town, his 
tattered garments and animalized features 
disclosing his vices and his miseries. The 
other acquired education, a learned pro- 
fession, offices of trust, entered the leg- 
islative Halls of the State and of the 
Union, and at length added the name 
of Millard Fillmore to the roll of chief 
magistrates of the Republic. 

Thirty years ago an Attorney was 
just rising into lucrative practice and 
great popularity in one of the older 
States. He was made governor of one 
of the Territories, elected to congress, 
and his victorious party seemed ready 



DIVERGING COURSES, 21 

to offer him any promotion. But the 
cup enthralled him. He drank under 
the table his political confreres in their 
revels. In a fit of delirium he leaped 
from a railroad train in his night dress. 
His junior of the same State, through 
the discipline of culture and piety, rose 
to various distinction in the public ser- 
vice and to the presidency of the United 
States immortalized by the Assassin's 
Pistol. In a Western State there ap- 
peared forty years ago two generous ri- 
vals at the Bar. Though natives of the 
same southern state, both espoused the 
cause of the Union in the Civil War. 
One became known as the War Gov- 
ernor and through superior talents and 
address might have attained any honor 
in the gift of the nation. But the cup 
degraded him and pren^aturely ended 
his popularity and his days together. 



22 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

The other, with less culture, wealth, and 
social position through sobriety, indus- 
try, instincts of patriotism, and native . 
force rose to be a peer of Washington. 
What possible destinies are opened to 
the millions of children now playing in 
our nurseries, or taught in our schools ! 
An artist has represented the progress 
of life in two series of portraits. In one 
we see the child develop into the boy, 
ruddy and beautiful; the youth noble 
and aspiring, the man resolved and 
dignified; and old age serene and ven- 
erable. In the other series, the child is 
followed by the obstinate boy, the prof- 
ligate youth; manhood irresolute and 
groveling; and old age, abject and de- 
spairing. The Missouri and Columbia 
rivers are traced almost to a common 
source. A traveler could drink from 
each the same hour. But flowing in 



DIVERGING COURSES, 23 

Opposite directions, they empty them- 
selves into different oceans many thou- 
sand miles apart. So the little rills of 
humanity rising in common endowments 
and conditions of childhood, varied, 
widened, and deepend in their channels 
may issue in widely separated destinies 
of life and ImmortaUty ! 



IV. 



SIGNS OF DIVERGENCE. 



** As the sun. 
Ere it is risen sometimes paints its image 
In the atmosphere: so often do the spirits of 
Great events stride on before the events^ 
And into day already walks to-m&rraw.** 



Careless observers see in the vessels 
passing down the ** Narrows '' in end- 
less series, no signs of different destina- 
tions. But those noting the model of 
ships, their flags, their crews, and ob- 
serving their course from the Hook, 
discover signs of differing destinations! 
So amid common aspects of nursery, 
school or play-ground, one may dis- 
cern auguries of various manly charac- 
ter or destiny. We need not study 
palms, use charms, or incantations to 
foretell the probable destiny of children. 

(24) 



SIGNS OF DIVERGENCE. 25 

In the young forest the naturalist traces 
the future oak, pine, beech, maple, and 
among the scions of the Nursery he 
can tell the plumb, peach, apricot, or 
cherry. So vices and virtues of chil- 
dren may be anticipated; and their char- 
acter and destiny shaped. 



mDUSTRY. 

The idle are drones in a hive, depleting 
treasures they did not hoard: partners 
in a firm, whose capital they exhaust, 
but never replenish. They waste in- 
herited fortune, and put forth no exer- 
tion to earn another. Neglecting work, 
they lose both tact and capacity for it, 
and gradually sink into hopeless pov- 
erty. Want of trade oftener than want 
of education betrays men into vagrant 
and criminal life. Of seven hundred and 
eighty convicts, under twenty-one years, 
in the Philadelphia Penitentiary, seven 
hundred and fifty-five had no trade: 

(26) 



INDUSTRY. 27 

while only one hundred and ninty-three 
had been denied the advantages oC the 
Common School. A Jewish proverb 
says, '' When a man teaches his son 
no trade; it is as if he brought him up 
to high-way robbery/' But while idle 
ness is losing, industry is winning all 
the prizes of life. Three fourths of those 
rising in professions or commerce were so 
distinguished by industrious habits, that 
their school vacations were devoted to 
some remunerative industry. *'When a 
boy among my native hills of New 
Hampshire," says Webster, *' no cock 
crowed in the morning so early that I 
did not hear him, and no boy ran with 
more avidity to do errands at the bid- 
ding of the workmen than I did.'' A 
family driven from England on account 
of their participation in the reform 
movements at the close of the last 



28 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

century, lost their fortune by bad in- 
vestment in Baltimore. The oldest son, 
of only sixteen, with robust health and 
industrious habits, lessened the sufferings 
and helped to restore the fortunes of a 
large family. Seeking in New York as 
the commercial center of the New World 
employment as a manufacturer, he re- 
fused the more honorable and remu- 
nerative service of book-keeper that 
he might learn the trade. *' Any one," 
he said, '' might keep books: but he 
wished to learn a business.'' From the 
lowest service he soon rose to be foreman 
of a large establishment; then a partner; 
and in a few years the manufacturing 
house of William Colgate & Co. was 
known throughout the country. He 
commenced his independent business, 
without book-keeper, or porter, and 
closed his store an hour before the 



INDUSTRY. 29 

proper time that he might personally 
deliver the first goods he had sold, a mile 
up town. He said, every one needed 
daily the fatigue of physical toil. His 
industry supplemented by other virtues, 
gave him ample fortune, and made him 
the most distinguished benefactor of a 
large denomination. Trained in the 
same industrial virtues and enlightened 
views of the uses of wealth, his sons 
have attained foremost rank in business 
and philanthropy. Industry of the toiling 
brain or the sinewy hand is Carlyle's 
*' escape from evil." Ruskin calls it the 
'* door of good.'' Says Franklin, '' if we 
are industrious, we shall never starve, 
for at the working man's house hunger 
looks in but dares not enter, for industry 
pays debts, while despair increaseth 
them." In our country there is no con- 
dition so low but that with associated 



30 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

virtues industry can not achieve wealth 
or competence. An Atalanta Journal 
tells of four lads in that city who sold 
newspapers for a living. To save a cer- 
tain percent of their earnings, they went 
their morning rounds through snow and 
sleet of winter barefooted. While sup- 
porting invalid parents, when the oldest 
was eighteen and the youngest twelve, 
they owned a good home, several houses 
and considerable bank stock. Estates 
rising over the country from the smallest 
beginnmgs are the measure of the na- 
tional earnings and multiplied memorials 
of the national industry. 



VI. 



FRUGALITY. 



The prodigal child keeps nothing. He 
does not preserve the nuts or berries 
he gathers, or books given him. In 
youth his wardrobe, however frequently 
or generously furnished, always appears 
scanty and in shabby condition. From 
the earnings of later years he lays by 
nothing. If he inherit property it is 
soon covered with mortgages and he 
suffers in want As a clerk receiving 
scarcely enough wages for food and 
clothing, he spends a large portion of 
his small pittance in confections, cigar- 
ettes, and drinks. A manufacturer paid 

(31) 



32 THROUGH THE NARROWS. • 

seven hundred dollars of marked bills to 
his employees Saturday night, and on 
the following Monday morning found 
four hundred and fifty of these iden- 
tical bills deposited in the bank by 
liquor sellers. A clerk was inveigh- 
ing against employers for the scanty 
salaries paid their clerks while he was 
spending sixty cents at a bar treating 
friends. It is improvidence that keeps 
many poor among us though they are 
clever, industrious and painstaking. Un- 
less the poor husband their earnings they 
can never gain wealth or even compe- 
tence. Discontents, frauds, forgeries, 
and wreck of character and domestic 
happiness may be traced to the grow- 
ing extravagance in personal and family 
expenses. It has been said Germans can 
live on what Americans waste; Jews on 
what Germans waste; and Chinese on 



FRUGALITY. 33 

what Jews waste. The superfluous ex- 
penditures of young men would suffice 
to support families with respectability. 
A child taught to husband his little 
earnings, in later years may lay by 
a portion of his annual income, and 
through life continue to add to his es- 
tates or his charities. A German youth 
came to New York at the close of the 
last century with the thrifty instincts of 
his native land. He availed himself of 
the extraordinary advantages opening in 
the Metropolis of the New World. He 
earned and husbanded his earnings. He 
rose above the technical merchant to be 
a trader in the products of industry and 
commerce. He established a North- 
western fur-trade and gathered larger 
properties from its continued enlarge- 
ment. He invested his increasing 
wealth in real estate, chiefly in New 



34 THROUGH THE NARRGV/S. 

York. Endowed with all the indus- 
trial virtues, grasping the commercial 
promise of the capital of the New 
World, and living to a great age, 
John Jacob Astor owned the largest 
amount of Real Estate ever acquired by- 
one man in this country. His heirs, 
honoring their traditional virtues, are 
still the largest real-estate owners in 
New York, if not in the New World. 
Without industry and frugality none 
can accumulate : with them all may 
attain competence if not wealth. Fru 
gality has acquired, and given per- 
manence to, large estates; warded 
poverty from barren lands; and filled 
myriad homes of all ages with bread. 



VIL 



ECONOMY. 



It is not enough to earn and husband 
to prosper. One must also know how- 
to use. As well waste with the prodi- 
gal as hoard with the miser. It is the 
skillful use of means that assures the 
highest success. The bad player loses 
the game to one with inferior hand; 
the unskillful general the battle to one 
not having half his battalions. Wealth 
enough passes through the hands of 
unwary speculators in Wall Street every 
day to make thousands rich, but not 
one in a hundred has the economy to 
save a competence from that Waterloo 

(35) 



36 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

of Capital. A wealthy banker says any 
fool can make ten dollars, but only a 
wise man can make good use of five of 
them. Economy arises from a trained 
sagacity. A child taught to play, study 
and work with proportion and system 
may grow in skilled capacities, strength 
of purpose, and character, and become 
able to manage trusts of corporations, 
or of Civil Government, and project 
speculative enterprises to develop the 
resources of the country. One born 
in New York at the close of the last 
century, remarkably endowed with a 
genius for speculation which was fos- 
tered by the enterprise of a growing 
city and country, and operating in rail- 
road and other stocks till an advanced 
age accumulated larger wealth than any 
other citizen; and bequeathed to the 
Vanderbilt name perhaps the largest 



ECONOMY. 37 

estate ever acquired in a single gen- 
eration by a single family. Trained 
economy, industry, and frugality divide 
among themselves the wealth of every 
land and age. A wary use of resources 
has elevated the race from barbarism, 
amassed the fortunes of the rich, fur- 
nished with elegance homes endowed 
with limited wealth and adorned with 
beauty the cottages of the poor. 



VIII. 



HONESTY, 



The dishonest boy cheats playmates 
in games or trades; takes things from 
home without permission; appropriates 
whatever he finds without seeking an 
owner; and robs gardens, orchards, 
and fi'uit stands. Following this pen- 
chant he will cheat in business, defraud 
an employer, or partner, or become 
a defaulter in public trusts. Tempta- 
tions to dishonesty are more various, 
subtle, and persuasive through com- 
merce, than through agriculture, manu- 
factures, or professions. Through frauds 

(38) 



HONESTY. 39 

of commerce the community is educated 
in every form of dishonesty. 

The unscrupulous boy is sure to be a 
dishonest man; and a thoroughly dis- 
honest man is the contempt of the 
world. Honesty nurtured in childhood 
is the only sure support of upright char- 
acter. The boy that returns the play- 
thing he has borrowed or found to the 
owner, when grown up will not embezzle 
funds, take advantage of the widow and 
orphan, or defraud an employer, or rob 
a public treasury. Faithful in little, he 
will also be in much, and will gain 
promotion. A chimney sweep strug- 
gling with tears against the tempta- 
tion to take a watch exposed where 
he was employed, won the favor of 
his patron and gained a place above 
his calling. Honesty in commerce is the 
first condition of confidence, and sue- 



40 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

cess; and honesty in commerce pro- 
motes it in every department of life. 
The merchant that has scrupulously 
maintained it through a long period 
and a vast extent of business deserves 
the distinction and praise of a public 
benefactor. A north of Ireland boy, 
with great sagacity and force of will, 
began business in New York at the 
beginning of the century as a pedler. 
He soon became a merchant; and by 
keeping familiar with the wants of his 
customers, and the markets of the 
World, the most assiduous devotion 
to business, and scrupulous honesty, 
A. T. Stewart became the greatest 
and richest merchant in America, if 
not in the World. He never lost 
credit at the Banks; was never sued 
for failure in a contract; never marked 
his goods with two prices. A clerk 



HONESTY. 41 

detected in misrepresenting the qual- 
ity or price of goods was dismissed. 
A merchant going into bankruptcy 
without paying his creditors in full 
was refused credit in any new organi- 
zation of business. All true and per- 
manent commercial prosperity must 
be based on honesty. Dishonest gains 
neither impart credit nor happiness 
to their possessor, nor do they abide 
with him. Without the confidence 
based on honesty, accumulation is un- 
certain, or if casually acquired is soon 
lost, and entails greater poverty and 
misery. The dishonest speculator is 
always despised. But the declaration 
of the poet, '' An honest man is the 
noblest work of God,'' is received 
with the currency and prestige of a 
proverb throughout the world. Giv- 
ing credit to individuals, stability to 



42 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

trade, security to investments and no- 
bility to character, commercial integrity 
is shown to be a universal duty, as 
well as the highest expediency — '' the 
best policy/' 



IX. 



GAMING, 



It imparts an unhealthy stimulus to 
commerce, disaffects towards normal in- 
dustries, and trades, and precipitates the 
rash speculations which wreck fortunes 
and families. More grain is sold annu-^ 
ally in Chicago than is raised in all the 
world. Provisions and stocks are sold 
for future delivery and at speculative 
prices. A New York correspondent of 
a San Francisco Journal says that of 
the fourteen thousand brokers in New 
York not more than three hundred and 
forty really sell any stocks. William H. 

(43) 



44 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

Vanderbilt said before a Legislative 
Committee, ^' Not one man in ten en- 
tering Wall Street, is not a loser in the 
long run/' This passion for gambling 
must be corrected in youth if at all. A 
leading merchant in Chicago determined 
to discharge all clerks who gamble in 
pools. Children should be taught to 
avoid all games of hazard. The small- 
ness of the wager does not hinder the 
inoculation of the poison. The fraud 
essential in all gaming fosters trickiness, 
insincerity, hypocrisy, heartlessness, ha- 
tred. Making issue with the law of God 
and the conditions of all human welfare: 
it fascinates, enslaves, and makes men 
Satanic. The gambler is a professional 
cheat and robber. He refuses to con- 
tribute to the great partnership of life. 
The gambler is not honest or just with 
God or men ! He would turn soci- 



GAMING. 45 

ety into a den of thieves! Why en- 
courage by doubtful games or trifling 
wagers, a vice so insidious, selfish and 
destructive ! 



X. 



TOBACCO. 



This Narcotic, by vitiating the blood, 
and impairing the nervous tissues re- 
duces the vigor of physical manhood; 
by encouraging improvident habits, les- 
sens the promise of wealth; by stimu- 
lating disordered appetites, increases the 
power of temptation. A recent number 
of the Dublin University Magazine, voic- 
ing the scientific opinion of the world, gives 
this warning to parents: ''The mental 
power of many a boy is certainly weak- 
ened by smoking tobacco. The brain 
under its influence can do less work 
and the dreary feeling which is pro- 

(46) 



TOBACCO, 47 

duced tends to idleness." But perhaps 
the moral peril is greater than the physi- 
cal, or mental. Whatever economical 
or social considerations may favor the 
use of tobacco by adults, there is no 
plausible reason for its toleration in 
childhood or youth. Many parents in- 
dulge while condemning the use in them- 
selves; much more should they resist it 
in their children. '' No cigarettes for 
boys ! '' is a warning now appearing over 
some drug-stores. Let it be enforced 
in every store, family, and school in the 
country. It is already proposed for the 
Statute books of some States; let it be 
the law of every commonwealth ! Through 
early education the race may be weaned 
from this expensive and dangerous luxu- 
ry and aspire to purer and more ele- 
vating diversions. 



XL 

THE CUP. 

The cup develops an artificial taste into 
a tyrannizing habit, enfeebling the body; 
obscuring the intellect; mortgaging es- 
tates; entailing poverty; debasing char- 
acter; and destroying the individual and 
the family. It fills the ranks of inebri- 
ates, paupers, and criminals; ravaging 
society as the locusts did Egypt ! It 
is a miserable fallacy that men must 
use alcohol in beverages moderately to 
become temperate ! As well pretend 
they should use arsenic, prussic acid, or 
Paris green moderately in their food to 
show their wary self-control. Poison like 

(48) 



THE CUP. 49 

sin should not be tampered with, but uni- 
versally eschewed. Gen. K , of a 

Western State, was a man of culture, 
elegant manners, and high social posi- 
tion. When he fell by the cup, friends 
expostulated with him for his own repu- 
tation, and the honor of his family. He 
confessed his imperious appetite. To 
their importunity he replied '' It is vain! 
One of the most affectionate and noble 
wives in the world often pleads with me 
in tears. Sons and daughters of whom 
any one might be proud, joining their 
entreaties in vain ! Why should you 
hope to be successful where such plead- 
ers fail ! No, I am. helpless — lost ! " In 
early life the bondage of vicious habits 
may be escaped. Admiral Farragut de- 
scribes his triumph: 'T accompanied my 
father as a cabin boy. I had qualities 
I thought made a man of me. I could 



5.0 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

swear like an old Salt; could drink a stiff" 
glass of grog as if I had doubled Cape 
Horn; and could smoke like a locomo- 
tive. I was great at cards, and fond 
of gaming in every shape. At the close 
of dinner one day my father turned 
everybody out of cabin, locked the door, 
and said to me, * David, what do you 
intend to be ? ' 'I mean to follow the 
sea.' ' Follow the sea ! Be a poor mis- 
erable, drunken sailor before the mast, 
kicked and cuffed about the world and 
die in some fever hospital, in a foreign 
clime!' *No!' I said, * FU tread the 
quarter-deck and command as you do ! ' 
' No, David; no boy ever trod the quar- 
ter-deck, with such principles as you 
have and such habits as you exhibit. 
You'll have to change your whole course 
of life, if you become a man ! ' My fa- 
ther left me on deck. I was stung by 




Narrows, 



SHIPWRECKED. 



THE CUP. 51 

the rebuke and overwhelmed with mor- 
tification. *'' A poor, miserable, drunken 
sailor before the mast, kicked and cuffed 
about the world and to die in some fever 
hospital ? '' That s my fate is it ? I 
will change my life, and change it now. 
I will never drink another glass of intox- 
icating liquors. I will never gamble ! ' 
And as God is my witness, I have kept 
those vows to this hour ! ''* 

Let thousands on the verge of poverty, 
disgrace and hopeless misery through 
enslaving appetites rise to the heroic 
purpose and honorable life of the great 
Commodore. 

Bad habits are a satanic police march- 
ing generation after generation of the 
thoughtless and wicked to destruction. 

* This and some other personal narratives we 
have quoted from Dr. Craft's ** Successful Men," 
published by Funk & Wagnalls. 



52 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

Good habits are an escort of angels guid- 
ing the wise and prudent in safe paths 
of life and convoying them to the better 
land. 



XIL 



INTELLIGENCE. 



Science, Philosophy, and Art do not 
arise from animalized childhood. Bar- 
barism is the creature of instinct and 
passion, and flourishes in the eclipse of 
reason. Ignorance creates herded popu- 
lations, not civilized States. Superior 
reason is the day-star of progress. When 
Alfred the Great was twelve years old, 
the queen mother offered a manuscript 
of poetry, she chanced to be holding, to 
the prince who should first learn to read 
it. The older princes had no ambition 
for the task or reward; but Alfred soon 
gained the prize. While he became the 

C53) 



54 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

most illustrious ruler and benefactor of 
the age, the names of his brothers faded 
out in the annals of undistinguished roy- 
alty. 

John Stuart Mill at three years of age 
began Greek; at eight, having read Xen- 
ophon, Herodotus, Plato, he began Latin. 
In morning walks he told his father what 
he had read the day before in Robertson, 
Gibbon, Hume, RoUin, Plutarch, or Mos- 
heim. The father would give forth ideas 
on civilization, government, morals, which 
the son had to ponder and restate in his 
own language. The boy had few if any 
playmates, and sought recreation by 
reading the " Arabian Nights '' and sim- 
ilar works. By the time he was twelve 
he had read the Latin classics, gone 
through higher mathematics and begun 
logic. At eleven he wrote a history 
of the Roman Government, which showed 



INTELLIGENCE, 55 

democratic tendencies in the child's brain. 
At fourteen his father sent him to the 
schools and he became the most cultured 
and learned man of his time. 

When a lad amid the hills of his native 
granite State, and his schoolmates were 
playing around him, Webster might have 
been seen under the shade of a tree 
near the school-house poring over the 
*' Constitution *' printed on a cotton hand- 
kerchief. Elihu Burritt, through greed 
for books and the public welfare, arose 
from the anvil to the highest rank of 
scholarship and philanthropy. Thurlow 
Weed's love of books was not repressed 
by poverty. When a lad he went sev- 
eral miles in winter with clouted feet 
to borrow a history of the Reformation. 
He became one of the most influential 
political writers of his time. Horace 
Greeley with similar tastes, and against 



56 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

similar disadvantages founded the New 
York Tribune, and became the greatest 
Tribune of the press. A few years ago 
a newsboy in Chicago through quick in- 
telligence, industry and fidelity became 
a journalist. He became such an expert 
in railroad interests, he was employed 
as private secretary in one of the great 
railroad offices. No man in the country 
is now more conversant with the origin, 
history, principles and policy of the ad- 
ministration of these great corporations 

than J. M . Though still young, he 

receives a salary rarely awarded to older 
men, in great corporations. He ranks 
as the second railroad expert in the coun- 
try. He is summoned to railroad con- 
ventions; and his intelligence, testimony 
and judgment are sought in settling dif- 
ficulties, fixing tariffs, policies, or terms 
of pooling the earnings of roads. 



XIII. 



GENIUS. 



The average mind is constituted to 
follow, not to lead; to use discoveries, 
not to make them. If more prophets 
were needed more would be inspired. 
Prophetic gifts often appear in child- 
hood. A lad delineating geometrical 
figures on the floor with chalk at six 
years of age: at twelve repairing toys 
for his playmates: at sixteen con- 
structing electrical machines, and mak- 
ing experiments with the steam of a 
tea kettle: ultimately invented the 
steam engine and gave immortality 
to the name of Watt. At the age 
of six, before he could write the notes 

(57) 



68 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

on paper, Mozart composed pieces for 
the harpsichord, playing thus early to 
discriminating" ears, preludes to the 
incomparable harmonies of his later 
years* West when a mere child, drew 
the likeness of a babe in the cradle 
so strikingly that the mother clasped 
him in her arms in ecstasy of de- 
light He used to make paint brushes 
from the coarse hair of a house cat: 
and when at length a friend presented 
him a set of brushes with paints he 
was so delighted that he kept them 
by his bed at night, and waking 
often put out his little hand to feel 
that they were there. Leadership in 
scientific art was forecasted in the tastes 
and habits of early years. Archetypes 
of the steam-engine, steam-boat, and 
spinning-jenny existed in the inven- 
tive brain of Watt, Fulton, and Ark- 



GENIUS, 59 

right long before they were con- 
structed for the world's use. The 
history of electrical science gives us 
three marked examples of the boy's 
genius presaging the man's brilliant 
future. Morse, the son of a clergy- 
man, from childish studies and experi- 
ments worked up to the invention of 
telegraphy. Edison while the train boy 
was devising some new method of 
signals, and publishing a little sheet, 
afterward the terror of his fellow 
workmen for his daring experiments, 
but lastly a light bearer for the world. 
Gray a poor boy was always planning 
curious tests of power with open eyes 
and ears for Nature's phenomena. In 
maturity the* vibrations along the metal 
pipes of his bath room fell upon a 
trained sense and the ready brain 
worked out the wonderful telephone. 



XIV. 



HEROIC SPIRIT. 



The coward has been despised in all 
ages, in all grades of civilization. Tim- 
idity in the presence of danger is tol- 
erated only in an invalid or a woman 
Courage transfigures life with glory 
and gives a kind of sovereignty over 
human affairs. 

The regal bearing of Cyrus in 
childhood gave him mastery over 
playmates, made him King of the 
shepherd boys, and pointed him out 
as a future ruler of men. The most 
illustrious of military heroes, when a 

(60) 



HEROIC SPIRIT. 61 

lad, had little fellowship with his com- 
panions: sought the seclusion of a 
solitary summer-house on the sea, 
listening to the breakers roar, and 
watching the sea bird s flight. A 
small brass cannon was his favorite 
toy, and mock military displays his 
greatest diversion. Daring traits ex- 
hibited in Nelsons youth in attacking 
a bear with the breech of his gun, in 
the Polar seas, and in volunteering 
to board a prize in a gale, gave 
promise of his renown as the first 
naval captain of his time. Lord Clive, 
the founder of the British Empire in 
India, when a lad climbed the church 
steeple of the parish; organized his 
schoolmates into companies, and pro- 
posed to the shop-keepers, for a small 
allowance, to protect their property. 
Resolution, pluck, daring^, exalt one 



62 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

to leadership, and arm him for and 
emergency. A brave man is a host 
in any quarrel: a brave people in- 
vincible by any foe ! 



XV. 



ENERGY. 



Without it individual man is reduced 
to a Micawber, ever waiting for some- 
thing to turn up; society to a rail- 
road train made up^ but without mo- 
tive power. Our age is full of energy- 
dominated by evil or good purpose! 
If instinct with selfishness, it is a 
Jehu in destruction ! Stirred by its 
irresistible impulse, a New England 
lad rose, through trading in knives 
and the pedlers craft, to an interest 
in stage coaches; steamboats; and rail- 
roads; and at length became a stock 
operator in Wall Street. He con- 

(63) 



64 'THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

tributed largely to the Black Friday 
Panic, which seriously disturbed the 
finances of the country. But while 
rapidly accumulating wealth, he used it 
only for personal indulgence, and am- 
bitious display. He enlisted and splen- 
didly equipped a regiment. He owned 
an opera house and shamelessly asso- 
ciated with actresses and other women 
of doubtful reputation. Brought into 
conflict with those as base in char- 
acter as himself, but cooler and more 
calculating in their aims, he was at 
length shot down, like a mad dog, in 
a hotel in New York. The public 
felt relieved of the most shameless 
example of profligacy which has ap- 
peared in the social annals of the coun- 
try. His energy was prostituted to the 
demoralization of the country. He was 
more dangerous to the morals of the 



ENERGY. ' 65 

Republic than Catiline to the liberties 
of Rome. Another lad of New Eng- 
land ancestry, but born in a rough 
county of northern New York, ex- 
hibited the same indomitable energy 
with higher intelligence, a strong sense 
of duty. He taught a district school 
to obtain means for a fuller education, 
and assist in the support and education 
of his fathers family. But the fall of 
Sumter interrupted his noble am- 
bition, and called him at eighteen to 
defend the integrity and the honor of 
the Republic. He helped to raise one 
of the first and most distinguished 
cavalry regiments, and distinguished 
himself in all its battles. He rose from 
the ranks through several promotions 
for valor and discretion to captaincy. 
His further promotion was stopped 
by capture and fourteen months spent 



66 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

in Southern prisons. After several 
escapes, he was arrested, and confined 
with more rigor, till he finally eluded 
his guard and reached the Union lines 
in Georgia. In his active mind all ex- 
periences, observations and studies of 
the war were coined into literature. 
He became the most popular historian 
of the Rebellion. Hundreds of thousands 
of his books were read in this country 
and in Europe. In the national Cen- 
tennial he crossed the continent on 
horseback, stirring the nation's patri- 
otism by lectures on ''Echoes of the 
Revolution.'' Subsequently he traced 
the Mississippi to its source, which 
his comrades named Glazier Lake. 
These two exemplifications of Ameri- 
can energy illustrate the glory and 
shame of our country. 



XVI. 

CHEERFULNESS, 

The irritable boy is fretted by every 
childish defeat^ and disaster. In later 
life this unhappy temper clouds the 
sunshine of home, taxes the patience 
of family and friends, and repels 
strangers. Wealth cannot purchase for 
the ill-tempered man peace of mind, 
fellowship of friends, or sympathy of 
mankind. Byron's gloomy genius, 
soured it is true by deformity, was 
bred from childhood in moroseness. 
He scowled on the world with cynical 
prejudice; and disturbed its harmony 
with the loud notes of his hatred and 

C67) 



68 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

scorn. The boy of sunny temper, 
though outrun in a race, beaten in a 
game, or excelled in rank at school, 
is still blithe as a lark, enlivening 
every circle with his gayety, and awak- 
ening complaisant regards in all by 
his joyous spirit. In a juvenile band, 
a lad of seven placed upon a bench 
lustily beat the large drum, uncon- 
scious of the music in his soul. But 
the other boys, on small drum, fife 
and tambourine, responded vigorously 
to his time and created stirring strains 
of martial music. So any true and 
genial-hearted boy, expressing in the 
freest manner his vigorous and joyous 
life, awakens response in every circle 
of childhood and contributes to the 
glorious and prolonged harmony of 
life ! Sir Philip Sydney, whose dying 
act of sympathy to a wounded soldier 



CHEERFULNESS. 69 

on the battlefield alone would immor- 
talize his memory, was distinguished 
by the cheerfulness and complaisancy 
of his manners, alike with the nobility 
to which he belonged, the circle of 
culture of which he was a distin- 
guished ornament, and with the army 
whose courage and chivalry in foreign 
wars he illustrated. A sweet temper 
cheers as the sunlight or the songs 
of birds. A hopeful man is a univer- 
sal benefactor. One never discouraged 
is the mightiest achiever! 



XVIl. 



POLITENESS, 



The vulgar boy shows no deference to 
parents, or other superiors; no tokens 
of respect to equals; and looks with 
ill-bred contempt on supposed inferiors. 
His rudeness grows with his years into 
boorishness. He is at home in no re- 
fined circle; and suffers mortification for 
his ill-breeding all his life ! The boy 
animated with the instinct of true po- 
liteness is deferential, respectful, or gra- 
ciously subservient to all about him. 
He does not omit morning and even- 
ing salutations to parents, brothers, and 
sisters ; nor the greetings of neighbors 

(70) 



POLITENESS. 71 

or strangers on the public streets; nor 
the respect due to the aged every- 
where. He retains the manners of a 
gentleman through life. The mother of 
an American statesman learning that 
her young son had treated rudely the 
family grocer, led him back to the 
store and exacted an humble apology. 
It was a lesson of politeness for his 
lifetime. A business man gave three 
rules as essential to success in life. 
The first was civility; the second was 
civility; and the third was civility. 
Consideration for the claims of others 
should be enforced as one of the first 
and most important lessons of child- 
hood. Rudeness, lacking the excuse 
of temptation, is the obtrusion of self- 
ishness and the bluster of conceit ! 



XVIIL 



FIRMNESS. 



Without it there can be no strong 
man or state; but one loses consist- 
ence of character and sinks into the 
tremulous instability of the jelly fish. 
He yields to the slightest pressure of 
companionship, circumstances, or cas- 
ual temptations, as the weather cock 
to changing breeze. He is swept away 
by rising passion as leaves by a gust 
of wind; or borne along by force of 
prejudice to uncertain destiny, as drift- 
wood on a swollen current. Having 
no fixed principle or purpose in life, 
one may take on from distorting influ- 

(72) 



FIRMNESS. 73 

ences a hideous expression of humanity; 
as a clever artist shapes caricatures in 
clay or on canvas. In feebleness of 
conviction communities are swayed b; 
appeal of political or social leaders 
as fields and forests bend before th( 
wind. They are *' double-minded men 
unstable in all their ways.'* But with 
firmness one may breast any storm of 
opposition; move against any current of 
difficulties ; and stand like a beetling 
rock over the sea, calmly defying 
dashing wave and wrecking tempest. 
He follows without vacillation some 
business, some party, and some faith ! 
His record is not a sandy shore sur- 
rendering its identity to every recur- 
ring tide! but a rock-bound coast lifting 
the same immutable aspect to sunlight 
and storm. No modern race has shown 
greater tenacity of purpose, and force 



74 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

of will, and heroic courage than the 
Netherlanders. Holding their besieged 
cities against Philip, without food, they 
were taunted with being '' cat eaters 
and dog eaters/' They replied with 
calm defiance, '' Then know as long as 
ye hear a cat mew or a dog bark we 
shall hold out." They have defied the 
sea, and rescued their country from its 
waves. They were pioneers in the com- 
merce with India. They established a 
navy at one time master of the seas. 
They withstood the diplomacy and ar- 
mies of Philip, and the anathemas of 
the Pope, and laid foundations for the 
American Republic and the liberties of 
Europe. Error is better than lack of 
conviction; bigotry than persistent scep- 
ticism; fanaticism than hypocritical con- 
formity; obstinacy than flabby obsequi- 
ousness. Firmness is essential to success 



FIRMNESS. 75 

alike in business, politics, and religion. 
As the Hebrew worthies were steadfast 
before fiery furnace and at the lion's den, 
so the Apostolic Church continued her 
testimony in the face of exile, the prison, 
or the fagot. And only as he is *' stead- 
fast and immovable" can any believer 
honor his profession by '' abounding in 
the work of the Lord.'' 



XIX. 



RESPONSIBILITY. 



Without a sense of it one neglects 
duties, glides into vices, and sinks into 
the instinctive life of the lower animals. 
He waits only temptation and opportu- 
nity to enter any career of brutality or 
crime ! But with feeling of obligation 
unimpaired, a child holds a clue to guide 
it safely out of any labyrinth of ignor- 
ance or sin. If driven before a gale he 
has a compass to steer by, and a port 
to enter. He has principles which may 
restore lost fortune, credit or hope. 
Character is perfected by the trials of all 
honored trusts. Impatient of the stew- 

(76) 



RESPONSIBILITY. 77 

ardship of Christ one falls into debasing 
selfishness if not into a career of crime. 
Loyalty to it exalts to rewards of vir- 
tue and eternal life. The discipline of 
the Church is seeking to make all men 
feel amenable to society and to God 
for the use of their talents, culture, 
and wealth. Conspicuous examples of 
Christian philanthropy have appeared 
in our country. Amos Lawrence some 
years ago in Boston, and recently Peter 
Cooper in New York, have pointed out 
the safe and beneficent use of the grow- 
ing wealth of our country. But two 
business men of New York, members 
of the largest religious denominations, 
are so conspicuously honoring the stew- 
ardship of wealth that their names should 
be repeated as an inspiring example! 
G. LS.,the son of a Methodist clergyman, 
and honoring his traditional faith, rose 



78 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

through remarkable business capacity 
to the management of one of the lead- 
ing banks of New York. With increas- 
ing wealth his benefactions increased, 
helping churches, private and public 
charities, and educational institutions. 
Though not reported rich he has become 
the most conspicuous benefactor in a 
large denomination. Within the last 
eight or ten years his contributions are 
reported at more than a million and a 
half of dollars. J. D., a member of an- 
other denomination, attained a collegiate 
education through extraordinary sacri- 
fices, and entered the law. After the 
fall of Sumter he hastened to the front 
with the brave men of the Empire State. 
Retaining his intellectual and profes- 
sional tastes and Christian principles 
unsullied through the war, he resumed 
the practice of law in New York. He 



RESPONSIBILITY. 79 

sought a church home, as promptly as 
boarding place and professional office. 
He rose rapidly both in business and 
Christian reputation. Not satisfied with 
the Mosaic requirement of beneficence^ 
he is reported to have pledged a fifth 
of his earnings, and to have greatly ex- 
ceeded that proportion in his manifold 
charities. In personal contributions and 
influence he has been the greatest bene- 
factor of one of the strongest churches 
in New York, the largest contributor to 
the endowment of a University founded 
by his denomination, and a generous 
giver to other institutions and charities. 
No Christian layman in this country, 
beginning without means, spurning stock 
speculations, and accumulating only by 
normal appreciation of real estate, is be- 
lieved to have given so much, in so short 
a time, and from such moderate wealth. 



80 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

The example of such men will help to 
solve the problem of capital and labor. 
It is exorbitant gains without commen- 
surate charitable distribution that excites 
the envy of the rich and the hatred of 
the poor and precipitates the discontents, 
conspiracies, and reckless violence of Ni- 
hilism. Great accumulations would be 
tolerated with less impatience if they 
were in due proportion dispensed in pri- 
vate and public charities: instead of being 
all hoarded as personal and family wealth. 
The Christian stewardship of wealth ob- 
served would relieve every suffering class, 
endow every needed charity, hasten the 
spread of the Gospel, and conciliate hu- 
man brotherhood in every land ! 



XX. 



CHARITABLE TEMPER. 



The vindictive boy resents imaginary 
insults, quarrels with brothers and sis- 
ters, and schoolmates; growing up, he 
promotes altercations among compan- 
ions, and murderous feuds in society. 
Professor Webster of Harvard years ago 
became angry with his creditor Dr. Park- 
man and murdered him. Before his ex- 
ecution his confession gave the key to 
his crime and his doom. '' I was an 
only child, much indulged, and I have 
never acquired the control of my pas- 
sions that I ought to have acquired 
early; and the consequence is this. A 

(81) 



82 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

quick-handed and brief violence of 
temper has been the ruling sin of my * 
life." The magnanimous boy does not 
retaliate an injury or insult, return 
blows, or bandy reproachful epithets. 
By mild though firm protest he represses 
anger in himself and appeases it in an- 
other. He becomes a peacemaker in 
family, school, and playground. In later 
life, always governing his temper, he 
develops a more heroic character than 
captors of cities, or conquerors of king- 
doms. Peacemakers are exalted as ''the 
children of God.'* 

*' Great minds erect their never-fail- 
ing trophies on the firm base of mercy." 
Revenge is Satanic; forgiveness Divine. 
Only by forgiving temper can the peace 
of society be conciliated, or conserved. 
'* Hath any wronged thee ? be bravely 
revenged: slight it and the work is 



CHARITABLE TEMPER. 83 

begun, forgive it and the work is fin- 
ished/' In the daily prayer never omit 
the conditional petition — '^ Forgive us 
our trespasses as we forgive those who 
trespass against us'M 



XXI. 



TR UTHFULNES S. 



Untruthfulness embraces all inappreci- 
ation of the truth as well as studied 
hypocrisy and willful falsehood. It is a 
mark of general depravity, and is con- 
summated in diabolical treachery and 
malignity. It impairs the confidence of 
social intercourse, and political compacts, 
and arms nation against nation. A 
romancing child may become a prevari- 
icating youth, a malicious slanderer, and 
a perjured witness. Truth is the basis 
of virtue, the cement of friendship, the 
bond of society, the guaranty of con- 
tracts and treaties. A boy scrupulous of 

(84) 



TRUTHFULNESS. 85 

his word, and exact in his statements, 
when grown up will not require wit- 
nesses to his word, or bonds for his 
promises. He may become arbiter in 
individual disputes, and mediator in set- 
tling difficulties of corporations — or par- 
ties. '' He that sweareth to his own hurt 
and changeth not" in his incorruptible 
truthfulness is assured of honor among 
men, and of precedence and glory in the 
everlasting Kingdom of God. 



XXII. 



FILIAL OBEDIENCE, 



The disobedient child evades every com- 
mandment, slights every service, and 
ignores amenability to parents. In boast- 
ful independence he says of those to 
whom he owes his being and support 
in helpless infancy, '' It is a gift by 
whatsoever thou mightest be profited 
by me." He naturally grows up im- 
patient of authority, without respect 
for superiors, or old age. ''The child 
is father to the man/* Insubordination 
of parents forecasts a rebellious life 
and an evil doom. A brilliant woman 
ending a profligate career inadvertently 

(86) 



FILIAL OBEDIENCE. 87 

disclosed the secret of its origin and 
consummation. '' I never would ask 
forgiveness as a child; my father often 
tried and could not make me." Having 
refused obedience to parents one nat- 
urally refuses it to magistrates. Law- 
lessness in the home is followed by 
anarchy in the state. The foundations 
of civil law and order must be laid 
in domestic subjection. The obedient 
child may become the model citizen. 
'* I should rather obey than work mir- 
acles/' says Luther. " Honor thy father 
and thy mother" is the first command- 
ment with promise. Filial obedience 
is specially honored by men and God. 
It presages the distinctions of personal 
virtue, the stability of the state, and 
the peace and happiness of heaven! 



XXIIL 



PRAYER. 



Prayer is conscious ignorance appealing 
to infinite wisdom for guidance; exposed 
weakness crying to listening Omnipo- 
tence for defense; imperfection deplor- 
ing deficiencies, and seeking of the 
All-perfect One restored character and 
destiny; bowed sorrow looking up with 
tearful eyes to Him who has said — 
''Blessed are they that mourn, for they 
shall be comforted '' ; guilt, chastened 
by distressing apprehensions, pleading 
for mediation of infinite mercy; mor- 
tality, while stooping downward to the 
grave, lifting up its eyes to Heaven 

(88) 



PR A YER. 89 

in vocal longing for immortality of 
being and blessing. 

" Prayer is the soul's sincere desire 
Utter'd or unexpress'd, 
The motion of a hidden fire 
That trembles in the breast 1 

" Prayer is the simplest form of speech 
That infant lips can try; 
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach 
The Majesty on high." 

Quarles says: '' Heaven is never deaf 
but when man s heart is dumb/' He 
that hears the ravens when they cry 
does not turn away from imploring 
helplessness, want, or woe. Though 
father and mother should forsake their 
offspring, God will never overlook the 
wants or be deaf to the prayers of His 
children. He who adorns the lilies 
of the valley, gives food to the birds 
of the air, and shelters and feeds the 



90 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

animal races in their various habitats, 
will hear the desire of the most humble, 
relieve their sorrow, sanctify to them 
their trials, and fulfill their hopes! An 
artist illustrates the guidance of prayer. 
A child following natural propensities 
is falling into the power of Satan, 
with malicious leer and weapon wait- 
ing to destroy it. An angelic messen- 
ger has descended, and with folded 
wing stands beside it, interposing a shield 
to turn its unsuspecting step away from 
danger, and direct its eye above. Yield- 
ing to a gentle touch, changing its course, 
and with clasped hands looking up to 
Heaven, the child is safe. No habit more 
effectually shields the young from temp- 
tations of passion, evil companionship, 
or proselyting error, than prayer. John 
Randolph said, '' I am a French politi- 
cian and I should have been a French 



PR A YER. 91 

infidel if my mother had not taught me 
at her knee to say, ' Our Father, who 
art in Heaven/'' Prayerlessness is an 
open door to irreligion and crime. The 
person or people, daily and devoutly 
repeating the Lord's Prayer, gain shelter 
from temptation, helps to virtuous dis- 
positions and noble aims, and cherish 
promise of saving faith, and everlast- 
ing life. Over every condition of sin, 
sorrow, and despair is drawn by a 
Divine hand that bow of heavenly 
promise — '' Whosoever calleth on the 
name of the Lord shall be saved." Then 

'* Never, my child, forget to pray, 
Whate'er the business of the day. 
If happy dreams have blessed thy sleep ! 

If startling fears have made thee w^eep ! 
With holy thoughts begin the day ! 
And ne'er, my child, forget to pray." 



XXIV. 



FAITH. 



Want of it leaves man maimed as loss 
of limb, or other bodily or mental or 
moral faculty. The loss of intuitive 
convictions of truth should be dreaded 
as distortion of mind or body. Ration- 
alists assume that one of defined con- 
victions is always narrow; one without 
fixed beliefs is the only broad man; and 
only one without any faith the truly 
rational man. But such pretentious 
sceptics are quacks in philosophy as 
well as iconoclasts in morals and relig- 
ion. As no philosophy is more certain 
than the intuitive truths on which it 
is based, they would subvert the foun- 

(92) 



FAITH, 93 

dations of all science as well as all re- 
ligion. Agnosticism, without God and 
without hope, is the harvest from the 
seeding of boastful rationalism ! Intui- 
tive truth is like the sun. Without 
that luminary our eyes would be of no 
use. But if we gaze at that glorious orb 
we are dazzled, neither seeing it nor 
anything else. But as the race are 
cheered and guided in their homes, and 
in their daily pursuits, without compre- 
hending the distance, magnitude, or com- 
position of the sun; so intuitive revela- 
tion of God, the soul, moral law, and 
heavenly promise, summed up in the 
Christian annals, shine upon the minds 
and hearts of men, vivifying moral sense, 
illustrating and applying moral law, 
and guiding them to perfected character 
and happy destiny. Without religious 
convictions and aspirations humanity is 



94 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

left to fade with the flowers and perish 
with the birds. But, with superior sense 
of God, moral truth, and beauty, one is 
exalted to prophetic office, Christian 
pastorate and leadership. Samuel lay- 
awake at night in the temple to hear 
the voice of God. He became the most 
incorruptible judge and one of the most 
renowned prophets of Israel. When a 
little boy, Robert Hall was seen listening 
as if hearing sounds in the air. Asked 
what he was listening for, he said, '' I was 
trying if I could hear God in the sky.'* 
During the prevalence of a revival, a 
Green Mountain boy was observed sit- 
ting with his head against the wall and 
his eyes full of tears. His mother asked 
him why he was weeping. He said— 

** I was thinking I ought to go to 

(a noted infidel neighbor), and tell him the 
Bible is true.'' Nathan Brown we believe 



FAITH. , 95 

wrote the missionary hymn, *' My soul 
is not at rest/' and is filling out one of 
the most brilliant chapters in the history 
of modern missions. All Christian min- 
istry and missions arise from strength 
of Christian convictions and eminency 
of Christian love. Undisturbed faith 
in the Heavenly Father, and Divine 
Saviour, will direct humanity to per- 
fected character and happy destiny, as 
infallibly as instinct guides the countless 
myriads of beings in earth, air, and sea, 
to food, shelter, safety and normal close 
of their humble career. The one who 
does not encourage his child to trust in 
God and repeat the Lord's Prayer is an 
unnatural parent, unfit to be the mentor 
of any human soul ! '' Tis religion 
that makes vows kept, transfigures life 
with beauty and arches the future with 
immortal hope! Forty years ago I re- 



96 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

ceived an apprenticed mechanic into the 
fellowship of a Church in New York, 
Christian experience and profession gave 
a new impulse and direction to his life. 
He rose from the skillful manipulations 
of the humble artisan to the higher tastes 
and pursuits of an artist. He went to 
the front and attained military rank in 
the Rebellion. After the War, along 
with renewed devotion to art studies, he 
took interest in politics, gained honor- 
able public trusts, and received from one 
of the great national parties a nomination 
to Congress; subsequently he spent seven 
years abroad perfecting himself in Art in 
the galleries of Dusselldorf, Paris, and 

London. F is now one of the most 

accomplished Artists, orators, and lay- 
preachers in this country, and his mature 
years are crowned with usefulness, honor 
and the hope of a blessed immortality. 



#roiif^ioti^ of a^otage* 




RESCUED. 



Narrows. 



XXV. 



VESSEL, 



A CALLING is chosen for a child as a 
vessel for a voyager. Abandoning a 
pursuit for which one has been trained 
should be as rare as leaving one ship 
for another in mid ocean. Great exi- 
gencies sometimes transfer a ship's crew 
or passengers from an imperiled to a 
safer craft. So doubtless, in the fluctu- 
ations of industries in a free and pro- 
gressive age, change of calling may 
sometimes be safe and wise. But a 
life pursuit should be warily chosen and 
seldom abandoned. One who can not 
succeed in a business he understands is 

(99) 



100 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

almost sure to fail in one he does not 
understand. In his ignorance, and com- 
peting with skill arising from experi- 
ence, how can he win success ? Men 
must arise by elevating, not by aban- 
doning their several industries. Normal 
successes of life are attained by faithful 
use of native and acquired skill, and 
the opportunities ever offered to intelli- 
gent industry. The rising generation 
should be taught to abide in their calling 
and identify their hopes with its pros- 
perity. People leaving farms, shops and 
offices to speculate in oil wells, mines, 
or town lots have demoralized labor 
and plunged thousands into the dis- 
contents, temptations, and miseries of 
poverty. 



XXVL 



STORES, 



A SHIP Starting on a year's voyage 
with only stores for a month may 
glide cheerily over smooth seas, taking 1 

no account of the future. But when 
storms tatter her sails, yawning seas 
open to engulf her creaking hull, and 
bread and water fail, starvation breeds 
mutiny and at the first port crew 
and voyagers will abandon the unpro- 
visioned ship. Inadequate intellectual 
and moral stores account for much of 
the disappointment and misery of later 
years of life. Diversions of thoughtless 
childhood and giddy youth mock the 
aoi) 



102 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

wants of riper years as stale provisions 
or empty casks and larders despairing 
voyagers. The average child embarks 
on the voyage of life as a ship with 
scanty provisions, doomed to the misery 
of want and discontent. Without mas- 
tery of passions, discipline of affections, 
culture of intellect, and established prin- 
ciples, no life can be happy and honor- 
able. These accomplishments give con- 
tentment and dignity to manhood, se- 
renity and hope to old age ! William E. 
Dodge asked a discouraged young man 
seeking help in an emergency, '' Do you 
drink ? '' '' Never." '' Smoke ?''''! never 
use tobacco.'' '' Do you gamble ? " ''I 
don't know the use of cards. I have 
other tastes and associations. I am 
superintendent of a Sunday School." 
The merchant, with eyes filled with 
tears, at the remembrance of aid given 



STORES. 103 

him by the young man's father after 
asking the same questions thirty years 
before, gave him the needed help and 
saved his credit and business, ''I have 
been young and now I am old, and yet 
I have not seen the righteous forsaken 
nor his seed begging bread." Let 
every child be furnished with Christian 
tastes, principles and habits before con- 
fided to the uncertainties and perils of 
the voyage of life ! There is no greater 
crime against humanity than for parents 
and teachers to send forth into the ways 
of life the ignorant and vicious to prey 
upon the public welfare. There is no 
greater benefactor of the republic than 
he who trains , for her true men and 
women. 

** Behold, thou art pilot of the ship and owner of the 
freighted galleon, 
Competent with all the weakness to steer in safety 
or be lost." 



XXVII. 



SAILS. 



To make the quickest time all sails 
must sometimes be used, top and top 
gallant sails, and even studding sails 
expanded from the ship's side as the 
wing of a bird to catch the faintest 
breath of a dying breeze. American 
vessels are the swiftest on the seas, not 
from superior model chiefly, but from 
carrying more sail. Other vessels spread 
an amount of canvas the ship may 
safely bear without frequent change. 
They avoid the care and labor of fre- 
quent unfurling and furling sails, with 
the varying winds. American ships 

(104) 



SAILS, 105 

crowd on canvas to avail themselves 
of the least and most transient breeze, 
and hasten into port leaving less in- 
dustrious sailors flapping their canvas 
in a calm, or driven from their course 
by a storm. Those on life's voyage 
making the most of present advantages 
are ever leaving behind them the in- 
dolent and the careless. Francis Joseph 
Campbell, a blind man, became a dis- 
tinguished mathematician, musician, and 
philanthropist. When complimented for 
his proficiency in so many pursuits his 
wife replied: '' The difference between 
him and all other people I know is, he 
makes use of all his opportunities." 
Promptness in seizing them is a secret 
of success. 

'' Timeliness in being at the right spot 
in every emergency,'' Emerson thinks, 
''is sometimes more important than 



106 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

industry or frugality!'' One losing 
no opportunity is almost sure of pro- 
motion. He is likely to be wanted 
for some place of trust or partnership 
and soon be ranked with the employers 
or capitalists. Neglecting advantages 
offered to the earlier periods of life 
leaves manhood unprovided for and be- 
clouds old age with want and sorrow. 
A lad obtained employment as an of- 
fice-boy in New York at four dollars 
a week. He had no advantages but 
capacity, industry, faithfulness, love of 
books, and a fine instinct of economy. 
He rose year after year in rank of 
service and in salary, till he is the 
manager of the largest manufacturing 
establishment of the kind in the world, 
receives perhaps a larger salary than 
any bank or railroad officer in the 
country. Though not much over forty, 



SAILS. 107 

C. S. has been Mayor of the second lar- 
gest city of a Commonwealth, and is dis- 
tinguished as a cultured gentleman and 
a Christian benefactor. Opportunities 
are among the talents dispensed to men 
whose neglect brings guilt and disaster, 
but whose faithful and wary use gains 
favor in Heaven and enlarged dominion 
on earth. Tripping or loitering on the 
course, one will be a laggard at the goal. 
The ship gaining port and winning from 
others prizes of the market, watched 
winds and currents, vigilantly main- 
tained her course, and crowded sail. 

** There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; 
Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows, and in miseries.'* 



XXVIIL 



CHART, 



Charts of the seas have been drawn, 
revised, and perfected through the ob- 
servations of the navigators of the ages. 
Boundaries of continents, location of 
islands, direction of Gulf Streams, and 
prevailing winds, dangerous and safe 
roads of the sea, lighthouses guiding 
entrance into ports, are all mapped 
down. Navigation no more ignores 
these waymarks of the sea, than travel 
the highways of continents. Without a 
chart a ship might beat about near a 
port, uncertain of her position and afraid to 
enter. Disregarding these waymarks of 

(108) 



CHART. 109 

the sea, one runs greater hazards than in 
discarding the public roads in crossing a 
continent. The experiences, traditions, 
and moral teachings of religious dispensa- 
tions summarized in Divine Revelation 
distinguish all the safe paths of life. 
The Bible is a universal directory of 
human conduct. One accepting its guid- 
ance escapes the sunken reefs of error, 
the Gulf Stream of false philosophy, and 
the storm-swept roads of sensualism, 
and safely reaches the port of happy 
destiny. On a New England sea-board 
was born of poor parents a sickly child. 
At the age of nine he was cook on 
a fishing smack. At eleven he sailed 
as cabin boy in a whaler. He was 
addicted to the vices of seamen till he 
was thirty-four, without any earnest care 
or ambition for his future. But the 
religious instinct indestructible in his 



110 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

ardent Welsh nature at length disturbed 
his peace, and awakened foreboding ap-' 
prehensions. He read his long-neglected 
Bible, partly to ease his conscience and 
partly for argument with shipmates. 
The Divine Word fastened itself in 
his memory, quickened his conscience, 
and rooted itself in his heart. After 
sharp struggle in penitence and prayer, 
he became a joyful believer and won 
shipmates to his new-found faith. 

He conducted prayer meetings in the 
forecastle. His office as mate and after- 
ward as captain gave prestige to his 
Bible readings and exhortations. Re- 
vivals followed at sea, and were reported 
in Bethel magazines, and Ebenezer Mor- 
gan became known as the Christian 
Sea Captain. Since leaving the sea hie 
has been heard with interest in pulpits 
throughout the land. While rising in 



CHART. Ill 

Christian reputation he was accumulat- 
ing means through successful whaling 
voyages. He was the first man to hoist 
the American flag in Alaska after its 
cession to the United States, and in or- 
ganizing the seal fishery in that territory. 
His increasing means have been spent 
in private and Christian charities, found- 
ing churches, supporting missions. Ap- 
preciating from his own experience the 
Bible as the world s religious guide, and 
seeking to exalt its supremacy and 
protect its integrity, he accepted the 
presidency of the American and Foreign 
Bible Society, purchased the best Bibli- 
cal library in the world, for help to 
future revision of the Scriptures, in all 
languages, and became an important 
factor in a new plan of Bible work 
adopted by a great denomination. Hav- 
ing found the Bible the best chart for 



112 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

himself, he would publish it for all 
voyagers of life. Following the sea 
without a chart is no more foolhardy 
and hazardous than adventuring upon 
the casual life of selfishness and sin 
without accepted examples, precedents 
and sanctions. '' Wherewith shall a 
young man cleanse his way ? By tak- 
ing heed thereto according to Thy 
Word.'' The young man or woman 
should be as familiar with the Decalogue 
and Proverbs and the Sermon on the 
Mount as with streets of their native 
city or roads intersecting their native 
town. 

'' Compass and chart are in thy hand; 
roadsted and rock thou knowest. 

'*Thou art warned of reefs and shal- 
lows; thou beholdest the harbor and 
its lights.'' 



XXIX. 



COMPASS, 



The mariner no longer guides his bark 
by projecting coastlines, or by shifting 
clouds, or uncertain light of stars, 
nor does he fear to direct his course 
across unknown seas. The compass, 
pointing ever to the North Pole, fur- 
nishes the same safe guidance for voy- 
agers through all ages. But to assure 
accurate direction, allowance must be 
made for variations of the needle in 
different longitudes. Overlooking this 
subtle bias, a ship might lose her 
course and miss her port. A traitor, 
it is related, betrayed his country's fleet 

(113) 



114 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

by concealing a loadstone near the 
compass. When they supposed they 
had arrived at their native shores, they 
were landed on a hostile coast. Con- 
science guides the voyage of life to 
its moral destiny. It is an inner law, 
which no revision of expediency nor 
reckless defiance can , wholly pervert, 
or extirpate. Yet it is subjected to 
such subtle influences of interest, pas- 
sion, education, or of public opinion, 
that often its guidance should be chal- 
lenged. Paul was conscientious in per- 
secuting the Churches. Devotees of false 
faiths are doubtless sincere. Millions 
on the voyage of life, making no al- 
lowance for variations of conscience, are 
sailing on dangerous seas, and liable to 
be wrecked on unknown coasts. A 
biased conscience precipitates or apolo- 
gizes for all the false aims and pursuits 



COMPASS 115 

of life. Religious sects, however diver- 
gent in their doctrine and discipline, 
profess to sail by the same compass. 
'' There is a way that seemeth right 
unto a man, but the end thereof are 
the ways of death ! '' For weal, or woe, 
man must follow his conscience in moral 
history and destiny. The true conscience 
is conformed to the perfect law of God — 

*' True as the needle to the pole 
His steadfast heart is bent." 



XXX. 



HELM. 



Without a helm there can be no safe 
navigation of the seas. A rudderless 
craft is liable to drift from her course 
by any current, be capsized by any flaw 
of wind, or driven a wreck upon any 
sunken reef or rocky shore. A hand 
is always at the helm, from the moment 
a ship leaves one port till she is moored 
in another. In any crisis of peril, the 
value of sails, service of seamen, or 
compass even depends upon a power 
at the helm. A determined will is the 
helmsman in the voyage of life. The 

(116) 



HELM, 117 

value of talents, opportunities, or pa- 
tronage, depends upon self-government. 
Any increase of advantages without it 
is an increase of power for evil. It is 
like the force of steam that, uncontrolled, 
may produce disaster. As more atten- 
tion may be necessary to hold a ship's 
course in a calm, over smooth waters, 
than in a gale, through rough seas; so 
greater temptations arise in intervals 
of business or seasons of recreation, 
than amid intensest professional or in- 
dustrial engagements. Employment is 
always safer than idleness or leisure. 
While industrious sons of poverty are 
rising in wealth and position, the un- 
occupied heirs of fortune are losing 
their estates, and becoming effeminate 
and vicious. Without a purpose there 
can be no self-government. Without 
self-government, life is a rudderless 



118 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

bark drifting on some unknown shore. 
Self-government is the self-possession 
of a commander on the eve of a bat- 
tle; of a captain in the crisis of a gale; 
of an engineer hazarding his life to in- 
sure the safety of the train; or of unruf- 
fled temper amid business annoyances, 
or under provoking insult. A clerical 
friend, flagrantly insulted at the polls, 
by a distinguished politician excited by 
the heat of the canvass as well as by 
the cup, calmly fixed the attention of 
bystanders and remarked in a quiet 
but emphatic manner, '' Sir, no gen- 
tleman will insult me, no • other can!*' 
The hero of self-conquest is greater 
than the captor of a city, the con- 
queror of a country, or the founder 
of a kingdom. Mastery of one's self 
makes one superior to all adversaries 
and adverse influences. Lack of it 



HELM. 119 

exposes one to all the temptations and 
antagonisms of the world. 

** Leave the rudder awhile to swing round, give the 
wind its heading and be lost, 
Stand bold to thy tiller, guide thee by the pole star 
and be safe." 



XXXL 



ANCHOR, 



ty 



The anchor holds a ship against wind, 
current, or tide. No vessel is furnished 
for sea without it. The safety of car- 
go, crew and passengers often depends 
upon it. An anchor with its cable coiled 
around it in hold or on the fore deck 
of the ship is scarcely noticed. But on 
a dangerous coast, or entering port, all 
appreciate the security it gives. What 
more interesting spectacle than a ship, 
returned from a long voyage, lying at 
anchor in the bay, and waiting to be 
warped into her moorings ! 

Hope is the anchor, of life's voyager. 

(120) 



ANCHOR, 121 

Through experiences of prosperity he is 
scarcely conscious of its ministry in mul- 
tiplying incentives to industry, cheering 
pursuits of life, and reconciling to its ad- 
versities. Says John Bright — '' One of 
the most painful things to my mind, to 
be seen in England, is this, that among 
the classes which earn their living, by 
their daily labor, there is an absence 
of that hope, which every man ought 
to have, if he is industrious and frugal, 
of a comfortable independence as he 
advances in life/' In the emergencies 
and trials of life, and approach of death, 
hope is a ministering angel. The Chris- 
tian hope is the climax of the most 
ennobling aspirations of humanity. It 
soars and sings over the sorrows of 
bereavement and death, and the dark- 
ness of the grave; and rejoices in 
anticipation of a perfected destiny in 



122 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

heaven. It is a staff for the pilgrim 
through the valley and shadow of death; 
a light streaming from the gate of the 
celestial city to guide his doubtful foot- 
steps; a song of welcome cheering his 
dreary passage over the Jordan of death. 

** And through the storm and dangerous thrall 
It led me to the Port of Peace." 



XXXII. 



PERILS OF VOYAGE. 



In crossing the ocean a voyager may 
encounter Gulf Stream, iceberg, sunken 
reef, or stormy cape. He may pass 
roads of the sea distinguished by tra- 
ditions of wreck and disaster. Certain 
periods and circumstances of life are 
beset with special temptations and 
perils. After long prevalence of ad- 
verse winds sometimes vessels are 
seen hovering near and seeking to 
double some cape. After turning that 
point the wind would be favorable and 
waft them into their desired haven. 
So noble barks of youth hover around 

(123) 



124 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

turning points in the voyage of life. 
If they can pass safely the dangers of 
leaving home, forming new companion- 
ships, choosing a business, or settlement 
in a city, prosperity and honor are as- 
sured ! Many never pass these danger- 
ous capes, but buffeted by storms 
finally sink in waters of oblivion. 
Some, bearing up against adverse 
winds, at length make the dangerous 
passage, and reach a peaceful haven. 
Amid these perils guardian influences 
are available to those who seek them. 
The petrel does not appear when sky 
is clear, wind low, and sea smooth. 
But when the storm howls through 
the rigging, waves beat over the ship, 
it hovers near, following the imperiled 
vessel through the storm, now beating 
her prow, now her stern, and anon 
her sides, with tireless wings. In the 



PERILS OF VOYAGE, 125 

beautiful superstition of seamen, they 
are the souls of departed sailors, hov- 
ering near their former comrades in 
peril. Amid the heaving billows of 
temptation, let memories of childhood, 
home, parents, brothers, and sisters, 
hover around as guardian angels. Let 
a sainted mother smile upon virtuous 
purposes and deeds, and frown sor- 
rowfully upon thoughts and acts of 
evil. Let the counsels and prayers 
of a venerated father be recalled to 
cheer and support you in uprightness. 
Above all, remember the watchful eye 
of God. 

*' If the friends who embraced thee in prosperity's 

glow, 
With a smile for each joy and a tear for each 

woe, 
Should forsake thee when tempted, and clouds are 

arrayed; 
Look aloft to the friendship that never shall fade. 



126 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

'* In the tempest of life wnen the wave and the gale 
Are around and above, if thy footing should fail, 
If thine eye should grow dim, or thy courage de- 
part; 
Look aloft and be firm and fearless of heart." 



XXXIIL 



LOG-BOOK. 



The record of a voyage is kept, with 
frequent calculations of the latitude, 
longitude, and progress of the ship. 
Through the study of this record the 
vessel's speed, course, distance from 
port, and position on the sea may be 
ascertained at any time, and the safety 
and success of the voyage assured. 
By the study of personal, or others 
experience, as narrated in the lives 
of successful men, double assurance 
may be gained for a prosperous and 
happy life. Confucius illustrated to 
his pupils the dangers of inexperience 

(127) 



128 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

by showing them how sportsmen 
snared only young birds straying from 
nests and brooding care of the old 
birds. Premature removal from guar- 
dian care of home betrays thousands 
into prodigal life. Half the failures 
in business or profession might have 
been averted by heeding lessons of 
personal or parental experience. It 
were safer for one to tear up the 
record of his voyage, throw away his 
map, and remain ignorant of his place 
on the seas, than take no account of 
his religious convictions and experience. 
A man having no regard for his 
higher relations and destinies, nor ex- 
amining his motives and principles, can 
never feel sure that he is true to him- 
self, to man, or to God! By wary 
study of one's faults he may often 
make them stepping-stones to success, 



LOG-BOOK. 129 

turning defeats into victories. Be then 
in knowledge and mastery of thyself 

" As a pilot well expert in perilous waves, 
That to a steadfast star his course has bent." 



XXXIV. 



BOUTING SHIP, 



A SHIP unable to sail against a head- 
wind beats against it by varying her 
course. This changing course is '' tack- 
ing ship.'' It is an exciting scene — 
sailors on deck and hands on ropes — 
command given — ropes pulled and helm 
turned — and sails sweep around and 
secure the wind over the opposite 
quarter. Now the ship moves majes- 
tically toward her destined port. Con- 
version is the moral voyager bouting 
ship. In natural depravity his helm is 
set away from heaven; and his sails, 

swelled by gales of passion, bear him 

(130) 



BOUTING SHIP. 131 

toward the gulf of perdition. Every 
human being must experience a radical 
change of heart, purpose, motives, and 
habits, to attain eternal life. The 
learned Pharisee, zealous champion of 
the common faith, and bitter perse- 
cutor of the despised Nazarene, cheer- 
ing on murderers of the first martyr 
of the new faith, having been arrested 
by a voice from heaven, authenticated 
to him by a supernatural light, changed 
the whole purpose and conduct of his 
life, and became next to its founder the 
mightiest upbuilder of the faith he had 
sought to destroy. This is but a 
conspicuous example of the Christian 
regeneration in all lands and ages. 
Christian churches are filled by those 
claiming a corresponding change in 
their motives and principles of life. 
The only way for voyagers drifting 



132 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

with currents of selfishness or driven 
by storms of passion and temptation 
out of their course is to '' bout ship.'* 
Hope dawns only in change of heart 
and life. 

** Deep horror then my vitals froze, 

Death struck. I ceased the tide to stem, 
When suddenly a star arose, 
It was the Star of Bethlehem." 



XXXV. 



END OF VOYAGE, 



In navigating the seas there are auguries 
of the close of the voyage. Green wa- 
ters reveal approach to mainland. Spicy- 
breezes proclaim proximity of islands of 
the Indian Ocean. New varieties of 
sea weed floating about his ships as- 
sured Columbus the shores of a New 
World were near. So gray hairs, loss 
of appetite, sleep, and hope, portend the 
close of life. How forboding that close 
to many ! Chesterfield, the exemplar of 
the worlds fashion and honor, in the 
review of life said: '' I have known all 
the pleasures of this world and conse- 

(133) 



134 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

quently know their futility and do not 
regret their loss. I appraise them at their 
real value, which is very low. I look 
upon all that is past as one of those ro- 
mantic dreams that opium commonly oc- 
casions, and I do not by any means 
desire to repeat the nauseous dose for 
the sake of the fugitive dream.'' How 
bitter Byron's lament over his brilliant 
career ! 

**Alas, for myself, so dark my fate 

Through every turn of life hath been, 
Man and the world so much I hate 

I care not when I quit the scene. 
My days are in the yellow leaf, 

The flowers and fruit of love are gone, 
The worm the canker and the grief 

Are mine alone." 

Madame Maintenon, the most popular 
woman at the French court, bewails the 
vanity of a worldly life. '' I have been 



END OF VOYAGE, 135 

young and beautiful, have had a relish 
of pleasures, and have been the univer- 
sal object of love. In a more advanced 
age I spent years in intellectual pleas- 
ures. I have at least risen to favor, but 
I protest that every one of these con- 
ditions leaves the mind a dismal va- 
cancy.'' A friend was asked: '' How is 
your class-mate doing ? " '' Not very 
well, I am sorry to say.'' '' Why, I 
thought I heard he was about the top 
of the profession ! " '' So he is." '' And 
growing rich fast? " '' Yes, that is true." 
'' Well, what do you mean ? " ''I mean 
that he is running down hill every day, 
and is now almost at the bottom. He 
seemed to be a noble fellow in college, 
with something of almost Christian prin- 
ciple in him. But he sogged away into 
a mean ambition, growing harder and 
colder with every year, is getting more 



136 THROUGH THE NARROWS, 

tightly hidebound in his selfishness, and, 
for aught I see, is already virtually a lost 
man." The end of every worldly career 
alike is found after the fullest experience 
of its votaries a failure. Those living 
in any worldly passion or pursuit are 
*' dead while they live '' and hasten to 
the oblivion and shame of a wasted life. 
In contrast to the heroes of the world 
the Apostle exclaims, '' I have fought the 
good fight, kept the faith, and finished 
the course, and henceforth there is laid 
up for me a crown of life; and not for me 
only, but for all that wait for His appear- 
ing." 

'' Thanks be to God who giveth us the 
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
However various their life, the end of 
the righteous is alike blessed. He hears 
the plaudit, '' Well done, good and faithful 
servant, enter thou into the joy of thy 



END OF VOYAGE. 137 

Lord/' '' Let me die the death of the 
righteous and let my last end be like 
his/' is the importunate prayer of hu- 
manity awaking to its most urgent 
necessities. 






XXXVI. 



THE HAVE 17. 



In Coles' '' Voyage of Life '' the artist 

represents, in a series of pictures, the 

progress, perils, and peaceful close of 

human life. In the first picture the 

child appears in a little boat emerging 

from the source of a mountain stream. 

Flowers brighten the hills, heap the 

boat and enwreath the cherub's limbs as 

he leaps up to greet the smiling world. 

To show the affiliation of childhood 

with the history and destinies of the 

race, human heads are carved on the 

boat. To mark the periods of life an 

hour-glass rises from the prow. To 
a38^ 



THE HA VEN. 139 

symbolize a guardian Providence an 
angel stands at the helm. In the next 
picture a youth appears in presumptuous 
self-reliance grieving away the guardian 
angel which hovers near with anxious 
look. Grasping the helm he gazes 
hopefully at the temple of fame looming 
up in the distance to direct and cheer 
his course. But the turn in the stream 
just before him leading over perilous 
rapids towards an unseen cataract es- 
capes his attention ! In the third picture 
the bark has been drawn upon the 
dangerous rapids before unseen, but 
the guardian angel still, disregarded 
and grieved farther away, peers out of 
distant clouds watching the reckless 
and imperiled voyager. In despair he 
has now abandoned the helm and is 
waiting in sullen gloom the catastrophe, 
as the boat dashes down the impetuous 



140 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

torrent. In the last picture the old man 
is emerging into a boundless sea. As 
the measurement of time has ceased, 
the hour-glass has fallen from the prow 
of his boat. As self-direction has ended, 
the helm is broken from the stern. Re- 
joicing in contrition for sin and restored 
faith in the Fatherhood of God, the 
angelic guardian has returned to guide 
the penitent believer into the Heavenly- 
Rest. From parting heavens angels 
are descending upon beams of light to 
welcome the time-worn voyager to the 
Everlasting Haven ! A ship returns 
from a voyage around the world, canvas 
blackened, rigging chafed, and worn, 
some of the crew Ipst, riding outside 
the harbor, waiting to be warped into 
her moorings. What seas she has trav- 
ersed! What perils past! What storms 
have howled through her cordage and 



THE HAVEN, 141 

plunged her beneath the waves ! What 
billows swept her deck and tossed her 
as a feather ! She seems a thing of life, 
with heart throbbing with the courage 
of her victories and sympathy with her 
voyagers. The sea seems lighted up 
with smiles at her safe return ! This is 
an image of the close of the Christian's 
life. He has traversed wide seas of ex- 
perience. Sometimes becalmed, some- 
times driven before a gale, sometimes 
appearing hopelessly wrecked, he is in 
port at last ! Providing sufficient stores, 
carefully studying chart, clinging to helm, 
and skillfully using sails, anchor, and log- 
book, he has reached the blessed haven. 
What rapture attends the close of a 
prosperous voyage ! O ! the shout when 
land appears — native shore, city, familiar 
spire, home of childhood! 



142 THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

"Once on the raging seas I rode, 

The storm was loud, the night was dark; 
The ocean yawned and rudely blowed 

The wind that tossed my foundering bark. 

But rescued from all perils of sin he out- 
rode the stormy seas. 

'* There safely moored, my perils o'er, 
I'll sing in night's diadem. 
For ever and for evermore 
The star, the star of Bethlehem." 



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